HONOLULU, Hawai‘i - Senator Donna Mercado Kim (Dist. 14-Kapalama, ‘Alewa, Kalihi Valley, Ft. Shafter, Moanalua Gardens & Valley, portions of Halawa and ‘Aiea) was selected to serve on the Board of Directors of the National Foundation for Women Legislators (NFWL), a non-profit, non-partisan organization that supports elected women from all levels of governance. Sen. Kim was attending the annual NFWL conference in Orlando, Florida last week when she was tapped to serve on the board.
Sen. Kim is currently the only female state legislator from Hawai‘i to be a member of the NFWL and most recently served as an NFWL State Director.
“I’m honored and proud to be nominated and elected by the membership to serve on the Board of Directors. This organization is incredible for its networking and educational components that helps women legislators like myself to be even more effective in our work in public service. Another aspect that I love is the strong community service piece that the NFWL sponsors,” said Sen. Kim. “I’m hoping to be able to recruit more of my female colleagues in the legislature to join this excellent organization.”
As part of the conference, Sen. Kim participated in a Fire Power seminar, “Building Bikes, Empowering Children” that had NFWL members team up to build bicycles. The team members were encouraged to reach beyond party affiliations and government titles to work collaboratively to construct the bikes. When completed, the bikes were then “inspected” by underprivileged students from nearby Orlando schools. As a surprise to these students, they were gifted the bicycles, which for most of them was their first bicycle to call their own.
Over the summer, as a member of the NFWL, Sen. Kim was selected to receive a donation of school supplies as part of an NFWL partnership with the Office Depot Foundation. Sen. Kim chose to assist students at Kaewai Elementary and Linapuni Elementary. The two Kalihi schools are among the O‘ahu campuses with the highest number of students who come from low-income families and have a large percentage of students receiving free or reduced-cost school lunches.
For more information on the NFWL, visit www.womenlegislators.org
Photos courtesy: Sen. Donna Mercado Kim